Rack



Dec. 16, 1969 M. SOUTHWICK RACK Filed June 13, 1967 INVENTOR. fZDE/V M. 50(/7//W/C/ 3 ATTO/Z/VEK? United States Patent 3,483,994 RACK Elden M. Southwick, Temple City, Calif, assignor of one-half to Harry ll). Thornton, Temple City, Calif. Filed June 13, 1967, Ser. No. 645,796 Int. Cl. A47f 7/00; A47g 19/08 US. Cl. 211-49 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention relates to a rack for holding relatively rigid packages such as packages of cigarettes.

Especially in supermarkets, the proliferation of cigarette brands and various brands and types of spices has raised serious space, inventory, and handling problems, especially near the cash registers where articles of small size and relatively large value are customarily kept. At the present time, no suitable rack means exist which makes the merchandise both readily visible to the customer, readily stored and stocked, and readily usable by the checker.

One object of this invention is to provide a rack in which packages can be removed at random from a stack of any arbitrary length within channels formed in the rack, and which rack also is sufliciently retentive of the packages that they may be held in a hanging position, dangling from the rack itself so that an overhead display may be presented which is readily visible to the purchaser, and which utilizes space over the head of the checker which is readily accessible, but which at the present time is not ordinarily used because of lack of means for reliably holding the merchandise in such a position.

It has been found that a rack according to this invention can be constructed with a metal stand and a plastic frame which will hold on the order of eighty cartons of cigarettes and, because of the relatively standard dimensions of width of the cigarette packages, can receive and hold any of the brands currently on the market. Furthermore, because the largest variation is in length, this rack relies on width as the determinative retention desideratum, and therefore its storage feature is independent of the length of the cigarettes.

A rack according to this invention includes a frame with a pair of channel members mounted to the frame which form a channel between them. Resilient means is attached to each of the channel members which at least partially bound the channel. The resilient means are laterally spaced apart from each other across the channel by a distance smaller than the width of the package, whereby the package when pressed into the channel distorts the resilient means which thereby exerts a squeeze on the package to hold it in the channel.

According to a preferred but optional feature of the invention, the resilient means comprises a springy structure having a first and a second edge, the first edge being attached to the channel member, and the second edge being unattached and disposed deeper in the channel than the first end, whereby introduction of the package into the ice channel deforms the resilient means, displacing the second edge, the package being thereby easier inserted than removed because the resilient means will oppose the removal by requiring additional movement of the second edge.

The above and other features of this invention will be fully understood from the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation of the presently preferred embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a left-hand view of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a cross-section taken at line 33 of FIG, 2; and

FIG. 4 is a side elevation of an alternative embodiment of the invention.

In FIG. 1, there is shown a rack 10 according to the invention which includes a stand 11 with a base 12, a pair of risers 13, 14, and a pair of arms 15, 16 attached to the risers. The risers extend horizontally above the base and may conveniently be made adjustable and demountable by the use of typical slotted and nut-bolt attachments. At the free end of the arms, the arms are apertured.

A frame 20 includes a wall member 21 and a pair of flange members 22, 23, which flange members are primarily provided for artistic embellishment. Side walls 24, 25 bound the frame, and bolts 26, 27 pass through the side walls and through the aperture in the arm, and are held to the arms by wing nuts 28, 29 or any other suitable fastening means. It will be noted that the frame is now adjustably pivotally mounted to the arms and may therefore stand straight up if preferred, or may be tilted to the position of FIG. 1 or to any other desired angular position relative to the base.

The rack includes a plurality of channel members of which members 30, 31 will be discussed in detail, it being recognized that as their operative features, all other channel members will have the same construction. As best shown in FIG. 3, channel member 30 (to which channel member 31 is identical), comprises a strip 32 of rigid material which is attached to, or even cast integral with, a base member 33 which forms an integral part of the frame. The channel members are, of course, spaced apart by a distance greater than the thickness of the package anticipated to be held in a channel 34 formed between them. Resilient means 35 is mounted to the channel members. While this resilient means may take many forms, such as strips of deformable foam rubber, still it has been found most advantageous to have an easier insertion of the package than removal in order that the rack may readily be stocked but so that removal is more difficult. This has the advantage of enabling the clerk to take out any package from a stack without having to work merely from one end without any risk of removing more packages at a time than it is desired to do so.

To this end, the preferred embodiment of resilient means is as shown in FIG. 3 and comprises a springy structure having a first edge 36 and second edges 37. Were this channel member bounding but a single channel, then only one-half of the resilient means shown would be used, namely that half on the side facing into the channel. However, it will be found most convenient to utilize the construction shown, because it comprises a piece of inherently resilient tubing, generally of rubber, which has an axial split 38 which forms the two edges. First edge 36 may be considered the bight of the tube as attached to the channel member. Attachment means may be as simple as cementing the first edge at the inside of the bight to the free end of the channel member. However, a retention strip 39 is shown extending the full length of the channel member with spaced-apart insertion of fasteners 40, such as pins. It will be noted that the second edges of the resilient means are free and are deeper in the channel than the first edge so that they will be displaced along the channel member when the package is inserted and the resilient means is deformed.

It will be noted that the channels of FIG. 2 are bounded at least partially by the resilient means. The dimentional relationships are indicated in FIG. 2. Packages 45 are shown with a nominal width 46, which nominal width is greater than the spacing 47 between the nearest approaches of the resilient means to each other. Thus the spacing apart of the resilient means is less than the anticipated thickness of the packag in order that, when the package is inserted into the channel, the resilient means will be deformed and exert a squeezing action on the package which serves to retain the same.

FIG. 4 is an illustration of a rack 50 adapted merely to be set atop a tabl 51 rather than to be stand-mounted. This rack, while shown in planar form, may instead be provided as a cylindrical rack or in any other shape. The materials of constructions and the details of the device of rack 50 are the same as those of rack 10, except that a stand is not furnished.

The use of the device should be evident from the foregoing. With th device set up and the frame adjusted to the desired height and angle, the packages are pressed into the channels and thereby retained. In FIG. 3 in dotted lines, there is shown the deformed condition of the resilient means when a package has been inserted, and it will b noted that the free second edge has moved. The springback of the material exerts a retentive force. When the package is to be removed, the frictional adherence between the package and the resilient means will cause a scraping frictional movement of the second edge along the channel member as the package is removed. This is a more resistive movement than that one which occurred when the package went in, and it exerts a surprisingly retentive action on the package itself. Thus, the package has an improved retention feature, still maintaining a ready facility of insertion of the package. Because of the resilient property of the resilient means, and the fact that the packages are relatively rigid and have a sensible thickness of width, the distortion caused by one package is not enough to free th next package so that any package may be selected at random.

I claim:

1. A rack for holding relatively rigid packages comprising: a frame; a pair of channel members mounted to the frame to bound a channel between them and terminating at a strip which forms part of the boundary of the channel; resilient means mounted to each of the channel members comprising an axially-extending and continuous arcuate segment of an inherently resilient tube having a first and a second edge, the first edge being mounted to a respective channel member and th second edge being unattached, deeper in the channel than the first edge, and overhanging at least part of the strip, a portion of each of the resilient means being spaced apart laterally from its neighboring resilient means by a distance smaller than the width of a package anticipated to be inserted therebetween, whereby the package, when pressed into the channel, distorts the resilient means which thereby exerts a squeeze on the package to hold it in the channel, the force needed to insert the package being less than the force needed to remove the same.

2. A rack according to claim 1 in which the second edge bears against the strip.

3. A rack according to claim 2 in which there are at least three of said channel members, and in which at least one of the resilient means comprises a tubing with a single longitudinal split which forms a pair of second edges and a bight as a first edge, the first edge being mounted to the respective channel member with one second edge on each side thereof and bearing against the strip.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS ROY D. FRAZIER, Primary Examiner R. D. KRAUS, Assistant Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 

